New M.U.'s Are Here!

At least 2 of the new M.U. cars are here. They arrived late Tuesday night from the Harbor and were parked inside the wheel shop on the Rock. As I was running train 526 on Wed, I saw the front end of the south car with it's nose just outside the shop door. They went to KYD about 8PM.

I would imagine they will be taking test runs between Kensington and 67th St. in the next few weeks. I did not get any car numbers.

any news on when theyll be tested? any photos yet?

how did they get here from japan? being that they have a differant coupler they cant put them in any old trainset.

I would imagine they were shipped in a freight train (well, not all the way from Japan ). It's no great feat to replace the Tomlinson coupler with a standard FRA coupler for shipping. There are also adapter knuckles, but those are typically used only for emergencies.

I talk with some crews. There told me that alot of crews are not going to like them. Becasue of being on top.Well we see.

If engineers on the other 11 lines can do it, I'm sure MED engineers can. It will just take some getting used to, no big deal.

Being on top is going to slow down switch moves.

I thought I heard that when the new cars were being designed, the BLE local that represented the MED engineers specifically stated that they wanted the cabs of the new cars upstairs.

The new MU cars are going to be on display at Randolph Street Station this Friday, May 20.

what time?

I believe it starts at 11am
I'll be there and i heard that the mayorand the Gov. will also be there as well as a few tv stations

does anyone know what metra's plans are with these and the remaining ordered. i would guess that being they are not compatible with the existing fleet that the will run the far distance expresses. while the existing fleet gets the close in branch line jobs.

I checked out the new cars today. Not surprisingly, they look just like 8500's on the inside (and very similar on the outside). They're very nice and everybody seemed pretty excited about them. I'm going to be away for the weekend but I will post pictures when I return.

You can also view Metra's press release about the new cars here.

I also stopped over in the metra part in between trains. I'm pretty sure the numbers were 1201 and 1202 also, I noticed that the cars were close to the wire and the pans were barely up. The cab seemed nice also, I wish I could've gone inside. I'll be sure to post pics soon.

sweet prrguy, looking forward to seening those pics.